A Blueprint of Something We Never Finished
by saradelovely
Summary: She lets him go, the purest sense of right that she'll have in her world, holding grains of hope he'll come back.// Puck and Quinn, Puck and Rachel, Finn and Rachel, Quinn and Finn.


_author's note: i don't love this fic as much as i love my other stories but the idea has been in my head for days and i had to write it to get rid of it somehow. please let me know what you think!_

Quinn's relationship with Puck and Finn was to be correlated to a deck of cards, 52 neatly pieces of white cardboard with various markings to distinguish them apart. The deck of cards, it would be her _fairy tale_.

Quinn, Quinn would be the Queen. Spiraling blond hair and brown eyed, she would be perfect for the role, the role of her lifetime. A damsel in distress, there was something terribly romantic about being saved by a white knight. She wanted that, that deepening type of love, strong enough to save someone falling.

Finn, Finn would be the King. Finn would have to be the King, for the simple fact that the title _fit_. Finn was meant for that role, and he filled that role in her life easily.

Logistically, these two roles made sense in the social hierarchy of their school. Quinn and Finn were in charge of ruling their kingdom, the students were to be their faithful servants.

And Puck, Puck would be the Jack. Or whatever, Quinn was often largely dismissive of his presence in their lives, and often tried to steer Finn into a new direction for a best friend. Her attempts were often failures, and eventually, Quinn left Puck alone.

But that night, alone and lost in a sea of melancholy, she couldn't leave him alone. Wandering over to his house, she wanted him to fix the aches that were shaking in her bones. That night, she was aware this was a mistake she was making, an irreversible mistake, but with his hands traveling underneath her shirt, his fingers lingering across the bones, Puck kissed her, the kiss filling the hollowness underneath her breastbone, and she forgot he wasn't meant to be her King. That night, he wrapped his arms around her, three words worming their way underneath her skin, traveling through the bloodstream to keep themselves under her heart. The words have morphed, they've become splinters inside her skin, splinters where his kisses and the love used to be.

If the first chance for Puck and Quinn to be together would be the night they spent together, their second chance was given to them the afternoon Finn discovered their secret. She doesn't offer explanations for Finn when he asks for the truth, she doesn't tell him she wanted a King for the father, someone who would fight with valor and courage, she thought it may have been Finn. He already knows her answer through the enveloping silence, and he leaves the room, Rachel trailing soon after.

Quinn goes to sit somewhere, her body fitting perfectly into the small section of space, and she leans her head back. Memories cut across her insides like a blade when she thinks about it, and she's at a loss, she didn't know it could hurt this much. Her crown fell, and she wonders if young girls can still be Queens after babies at sixteen.

She's joined by Puck half an hour into her session, knowing it's been thirty minutes because she's counted every one of them. She waits for him to speak first, she waits for him to tell her that the past is left in the past, and he _still_ wants to be her future.

"I gave up _my_ best friend for you that night, and you thought it didn't mean anything. And, and you stayed with him, even _after_ you found out."

She can only nod. "I didn't know it would. I didn't know months later we would be sitting here in this position, I didn't _know_ but it could mean something now, couldn't it? We could still _be_ something." She could still have a King, even if the man originally fitting the role has swapped positions with someone else.

He shakes his head, the sadness glittering across his green eyes.

"It doesn't mean anything now, not after this. I couldn't love this baby any less if I tried but I could never love you the way I did that night. I loved you _then_, not in the aftermath when he left you."

She knows it's true, she doesn't argue. She wouldn't have settled for him when she could have had Finn.

She waits for him to speak, waiting for him to offer her promises of a fairy tale ending. If Finn has left, then she has to slot Puck into the role of the King. He doesn't speak and she bites her lip to ask why. He was excited for this child, despite her attempts to keep him away. He wanted to be with her, she wonders if he could learn the feeling again.

"How is Rachel taking it?" She doesn't ask because she cares, she asks because she needs to know there's still room for her in his heart.

He sighs, smiling a bitter smile, his fingers moving to the back of his neck, a little above the beginning of his spine.

"She dumped me, no surprise there. Her and Finn are probably together now, singing songs with happy endings, since there's no reason for them to be apart."

Quinn nods, a sprout of joy worming its way into her heart. She could be with Puck now, and they could be a family with this life inside her. She could mold him into her King, she could fix him to fit. He looks miserable, but Quinn becomes selfish, she chalks it up to his the circle of black trailing around his left eye.

The pair sit together in silence, and Quinn waits for Puck to grab her hand, to intertwine their fingers, _they could be a family, _but he doesn't. He keeps his hands clasped on his lap, clenched tight, turning white. She wants to break apart the silence, shatter the invisible wall growing between them, but she can't bring herself to utter a syllable. She realizes there are no words for these type of things, these type of feelings.

Their silence is interrupted by footsteps, ones that are quiet as a mouse and normally not associated with Rachel Berry. Quinn isn't surprised to see her, she should have known that Berry wouldn't stay far from Puck, regardless of the circumstances between them.

She gives Quinn a hesitant smile, one that doesn't match the coldness of her eyes, and looks over at Puck sitting next to her, his head back and his eyes closed, hands _still_ clenched tight.

"Noah."

"Noah. Noah. Noah. _Noah._"

He doesn't lift his head, not even when she says his name in a series of rapid breaths. Finally, Rachel gives in and walks over to sit on his lap, causing him to open an eye and place his arms around her, burying his face into her shoulder., muttering _ohthankgodyou'rehere, thankgodyou'rehere_ over and over. There's water filling his eyes, and the green eyed monster in Quinn's heart rears its head.

Unbelievable, Quinn thinks. Unbelievable. She's sitting next to the father of her child, and he's wrapping himself in someone else's arms. These type of things don't happen in fairy tales, she thinks. The King doesn't leave with a different Queen, if anyone could refer to Berry as that.

"I thought you broke up." Quinn's voice is the first to break the silence, and she's greeted by one of Rachel's infamous dirty looks, Puck still immobile in her arms, his hands beneath her shirt, covering her lower back. Quinn exhales sharply, she wonders if she could press rewind. She wishes she could take his feelings for Berry and move them back onto her.

"I don't think that's any of your concern." Rachel's voice comes out stiffly, barely creeping off the edge of monotone. She lifts herself off Puck, and tugs at his hand, willing him to come with her.

She watches him leave with Berry, reminding herself to breathe, inhaling and exhaling sharp breaths. She lets him go, the purest sense of right that she'll have in her world, holding grains of hope he'll come back.

_Sometimes in fairy tales, they don't find each other until the last page._


End file.
